Scenario: You're an island nation pursuing a strategy heavy on a fleet air arm, causing you to invest a lot in your navy and air force. This leaves your infantry, ordnance, and armored units languishing as they become hopelessly outmatched by their peers in other nearby nations. You can't really fix this. You already went all-in on your chosen strategy. You wish, though, that you could do something to squeeze out a little more service life from the ground units that you have, on the cheap.
Scenario: You have an idea for a strategy, or want to give your army a little but of off-color character. But the units existing in-game are unsuitable to your vision, and you find yourself becoming bored with the same old units game in and game out.
I've been tossing around an idea as of late that addresses both of these. The way it would work is that each research level of unit is accompanied with three sub-variants, which can be accessed after researching a particular unit. You then have the option of taking one of these three variants, which would alter the stats of the unit to fit a particular playstyle.
These upgrades would be relatively cheap and quick to research. The upshot, however, is that they are disregarded and rendered invalid as soon as you upgrade to a new level. So it's ideal to pick one of these so-called "varients" for a weapon/unit that you intend to keep around for quite some time.
Example: I research Antitank LvL.1 from the ordnance foundry, anticipating an early armor rush. However, the enemy shows up with more infantry than armor, and I see a need to try and force out a bandaid solution in short order to buy me time to turn the situation around, so I look to add a variant to the Antitank LvL.1.
The variants in this hypothetical situation might be as follows:
Advanced armor piercing ammunition
By using tungsten carbide and advanced ballistic research, our scientists have developed more effective shells to defeat heavy armor. By issuing this ammunition in quantity, we increase the effectiveness of our current generation of guns against increasingly heavier armor. However, these shells are less effective against everything else.
+1 vs. Heavy Armor, -0.5 vs. All Else
High Explosive Ammunition
Ordnance has developed effective anti-personnel shells in this caliber. Although not initially designed for this mission, issuing high explosive shells to our antitank gun crews gives them the ability to lay direct fire against soft targets in support of our troops. However, this comes at the cost of less armor piercing rounds per gun, leading to a decrease in antitank firepower.
+1 vs. Infantry Armor, -0.5 vs. All Else
Heavy Gun Shields
Experience in the field shows that exposed gun crews are vulnerable. The application of heavier gun shields affords the crew with more cover, increasing their survivability. However, the added weight makes the weapon noticeably more difficult for troops to effectively deploy on uneven and broken terrain.
+5% Health, 10% terrain speed penalties
Given the situation, I might choose to make the antitank guns in the field a little tougher, or give them more anti-infantry firepower. The quick research would apply to all guns in the field and future guns of this level that I build. However, as soon as I research to Antitank LvL.2, all new-production guns will be stock LvL.2 units. As soon as I upgrade a LvL.1 gun in the field, it loses the upgrade and becomes a stock LvL.2 gun, until I decide whether or not to take one of the LvL.2 variants.
Scenario: You have an idea for a strategy, or want to give your army a little but of off-color character. But the units existing in-game are unsuitable to your vision, and you find yourself becoming bored with the same old units game in and game out.
I've been tossing around an idea as of late that addresses both of these. The way it would work is that each research level of unit is accompanied with three sub-variants, which can be accessed after researching a particular unit. You then have the option of taking one of these three variants, which would alter the stats of the unit to fit a particular playstyle.
These upgrades would be relatively cheap and quick to research. The upshot, however, is that they are disregarded and rendered invalid as soon as you upgrade to a new level. So it's ideal to pick one of these so-called "varients" for a weapon/unit that you intend to keep around for quite some time.
Example: I research Antitank LvL.1 from the ordnance foundry, anticipating an early armor rush. However, the enemy shows up with more infantry than armor, and I see a need to try and force out a bandaid solution in short order to buy me time to turn the situation around, so I look to add a variant to the Antitank LvL.1.
The variants in this hypothetical situation might be as follows:
Advanced armor piercing ammunition
By using tungsten carbide and advanced ballistic research, our scientists have developed more effective shells to defeat heavy armor. By issuing this ammunition in quantity, we increase the effectiveness of our current generation of guns against increasingly heavier armor. However, these shells are less effective against everything else.
+1 vs. Heavy Armor, -0.5 vs. All Else
High Explosive Ammunition
Ordnance has developed effective anti-personnel shells in this caliber. Although not initially designed for this mission, issuing high explosive shells to our antitank gun crews gives them the ability to lay direct fire against soft targets in support of our troops. However, this comes at the cost of less armor piercing rounds per gun, leading to a decrease in antitank firepower.
+1 vs. Infantry Armor, -0.5 vs. All Else
Heavy Gun Shields
Experience in the field shows that exposed gun crews are vulnerable. The application of heavier gun shields affords the crew with more cover, increasing their survivability. However, the added weight makes the weapon noticeably more difficult for troops to effectively deploy on uneven and broken terrain.
+5% Health, 10% terrain speed penalties
Given the situation, I might choose to make the antitank guns in the field a little tougher, or give them more anti-infantry firepower. The quick research would apply to all guns in the field and future guns of this level that I build. However, as soon as I research to Antitank LvL.2, all new-production guns will be stock LvL.2 units. As soon as I upgrade a LvL.1 gun in the field, it loses the upgrade and becomes a stock LvL.2 gun, until I decide whether or not to take one of the LvL.2 variants.